Eggplant, Potato and Pepper Casserole

Majorcans love to talk about the quality of their vegetables, and this dish of sautéd eggplant, potatoes and bell peppers in fresh tomato sauce, called tumbet, is one of their favorite creations. We suggest serving it with grilled fish or lamb chops, as Majorcans do.

Preparation

Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, sauté until golden, about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes with their juices and thyme sprigs; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until mixture is reduced to 2 1/2 cups, breaking up tomatoes with back of spoon, about 20 minutes. Season sauce with salt and pepper. Discard thyme sprigs.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Add oil to 2 large skillets to depth of 1/4 inch. Heat over medium-high heat. Working in batches, add eggplant to skillets and cook until golden, adding more oil to skillets as necessary, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer to paper towels and drain. Working in batches, add potatoes to skillets, cook until golden, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer potatoes to paper towels. Add green peppers to same skillet; sauté until almost tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer to paper towels.

Layer half of eggplant in 15x10x2-inch glass baking dish. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon thyme. Spoon 1/2 cup sauce over. Top with half of potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Top with 1 tablespoon thyme. Spoon 1/2 cup sauce over. Place all pepper slices over. Season with salt and pepper. Top with 1 tablespoon thyme. Spoon 1/2 cup sauce over. Top with remaining eggplant. Top with 1 tablespoon thyme. Spoon 1/2 cup sauce over. Top with remaining potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Top with 1 tablespoon thyme and 1/2 cup sauce.

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Recent Review

This was tasty although too time consuming for the outcome. Based on the other comments, I tried to make it less laborious by making the sauce the day before. I also tried to make it quicker and less oily by cooking the eggplant and potatoes in my ovens. I used 4 baking trays lined with parchment for easy clean up. I put the eggplant and potatoes on them, brushed them lightly with olive oil on both sides, sprinkled them with salt and pepper, and cooked them at 400 for 20 minutes. In the meantime I chopped and sauteed the peppers. I also added feta cheese to the eggplant layers and sprinkled some on top for added flavor. It still took me an hour and 40 minutes to put it all together.
On the plus side, this is a nice hearty vegetarian dish to bring to a party and it is fine at any temperature. You could also shorten it up by buying a good quality roasted garlic tomato sauce.